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I did it! I completed the Chevron Houston Marathon 26.2miles

I did it! I completed my first #fullmarathon! Congratulations to everyone that ran! 🏃🏻‍♀️🏃🏻To be honest, I am a fairly slow runner so I didn’t think I would complete it in time. However, I was determined to run 26.2miles, even if the gates closed on me.

Reflecting on the day, there were so many factors that kept me going. Trust me, at about the 20mi mark, I saw two guys pulling an empty medical stretcher by….I never thought a stretcher could look so comfortable!🤣 But really, it was a culmination of things that kept me going:

– the painful training that made me want to quit, but eventually wore away
– coach @vinhthuy12 who followed up with our progress and shared his experiences/tips.
– the #runners in my training group who hit milestones and inspired me to do better
– my husband @tan.ngo keeping pace for me
– family cheerleaders who braved the freezing temps to cheer us on @carlyjhoang@mynameisngo. It was also nice to see complete strangers holding up signs

– my brother @dentite37 who ran the half for the first time and did amazingly awesome
– the familiar faces along the way that brought a moment of joy when it felt miserable. Some I haven’t seen for years!

– Appreciating my surroundings, especially the roads we ran on. They are usually filled with traffic jams or speeding cars. It felt strange to run along the Westpark freeway to Post Oak.

– the texts I received from friends and love ones
– the mental games I used. During training, I ran to my sister’s house 7 miles away and then back home. During the marathon, I had to literally imagine myself running to her house then back home. So I used 7 mile markers during the marathon.
– I prayed my rosary cousin @mtnguye gave me at the 22-24mile point.

Would I do it again? If you asked me during training up to yesterday, the answer is NO! It takes a lot of time, a lot of physical energy, mental energy, and the pain can be unbearable, but…

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But on a side note, I bulked up to run the Chevron Houston Marathon. Literally. I put layers of clothing on to endure the cold freezing temperatures of the day. The morning started at 32F and reached a high of 54F. I never ran in those temperatures before. It is common to shed your clothes while running. People would throw clothes along the side of the road. They have designated volunteers to pick up the clothing and it would go to Goodwill. I already had a bag of clothes to be donated so it was all in good timing to wear the sweater and 2 t-shirts I would toss on the side of the road.

Here are the main items I had on for the run. Thank you Nancy for my wool socks!

Well, it is still early 2019 and it feels good to accomplish something so big (at least it is big for me). I learned so much from this experience. I am interested to see what the rest of 2019 would bring. All the good and bad coming this way will have plenty of lessons to learn from, so…BRING IT ON 2019!